Michigan State is moving on without suspended senior linebacker Max Bullough. Michigan State announced announced late Wednesday night that Bullough, a team captain, had been suspended for the Rose Bowl for violating unspecified team rules. On Thursday, during a news conference at Disneyland, Michigan State Coach Mark Dantonio sounded unfazed by the loss of a linebacker who made 76 tackles, including 9 1/2 for loss, this season. “We're going to do what we do," Dantonio said.

Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston was named the Associated Press national college football player of the year on Monday. Winston received 49 out of 56 votes cast by AP Top 25 college football poll voters. Northern Illinois quarterback Jordan Lynch finished second with three votes. Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron got two votes. Boston College running back Andre Williams and Michigan State cornerback Darqueze Dennard each received one vote. Winston is the first Florida State player to win the award, which has been handed out since 1998, and the first from the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Smarty, meet Sparty. The race for this year's 100th Rose Bowl game was not nearly as exciting as the race for tickets to this year's 100th Rose Bowl Game. Stanford, the defending Rose Bowl champions, may have even been outsmarted by ticket-hungry fans from East Lansing. Michigan State, after all, is making its first Rose Bowl appearance in 26 years. It was reported last week that some Michigan State fans took advantage of a Stanford plan that offered tickets to anyone who put a $100 deposit to become a 2014 Stanford season ticket holder.

Question: Who would get the fourth berth in the playoff? That's the question I'd love to see you tackle. Ted Frank Answer: I tackled this question so hard in Monday's column I almost got called for "targeting. " And that ejection would have forced me to sit out the first half of next week's column. It's a great question but one next year's selection committee does not have to tackle because it is hypothetical. In fact, the BCS worked better this year than the four-team playoff would have worked.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - - The final Saturday of the first Bowl Championship Series season in 1998 ended with shocking losses by Kansas State and UCLA that turned the BCS on its ear hole. Wild endings in St. Louis and Miami that day put Tennessee and Florida State in the first title game. It seemed only right that the final Saturday of the last BCS season should match that chaotic conclusion. Well, it certainly tried. In the end, though, somehow, it sort of broke cleanly. How?

You can use statistics to say whatever you want to say. UCLA's basketball team beat Northwestern on Friday to run its record to 7-0. Their Twitter feed boldly announced: “ @UCLAMBB UCLA's Steve Alford has become the program's first-ever head coach to lead the Bruins to a 7-0 record in his first season at the helm” Holy John Wooden! Ah, but there's fine print: UCLA has played Drexel, Oakland, Sacramento State, Morehead State, Chattanooga, Nevada and Northwestern.

Rankman extends deepest Thanksgiving apologies to Florida, Michigan, Arizona, California, Oregon State, Arkansas and North Carolina, who did not make the top 25 and therefore could not defend themselves against this onslaught of rivalry jokes. The advice is simple: Get better and don't lose to Georgia Southern or Eastern Washington. We're also sorry that rapacious expansion has deprived us a Missouri jab at Kansas and a Texas A&M comment about Texas. 1; Alabama 11-0; What do you get when you drive quickly through the Auburn campus?

Five things to watch this week in college football: 1. Enjoy Thanksgiving dinner on Fox Sports 1 with Texas Tech at Texas in a game that will feature tight camera shots of Mack Brown and endless speculation about who might replace him as Texas coach. Hasn't Todd Graham put in enough time at Arizona State? He has been there nearly two years. 2. What a block party: Auburn fans saw their Tigers move up in the polls during a bye week while they positioned their recreational vehicles in the parking lot more than a week in advance of the biggest Iron Bowl.